Research Students' Annual Conference (RSAC) 2010 - School of ...

Room1 / Great
Woodhouse
Room 3 / Beech Grove
Room2 / St. George
School of Education Research Students’ Annual Conference (RSAC) 2010
24 November, University House, University of Leeds
Name
Email
Title
11.40 – 12.05 Parallel sessions 2
Jeff Potter
jeff.potter@leedscitycollege.ac.uk
Vocational education and training for the childcare profession
The research will investigate changes to childcare qualifications (at Level 3 – post 16) using
interviews and questionnaires with FE practitioners, childcare and education providers, Higher
education staff and representatives from awarding bodies and government departments. The changes
to childcare qualifications started with the Children‘s Workforce Development Council (CWDC)
designing a new Level 3 qualification to replace all existing college and work based routes. The study
aims to use Leeds City College as a base for exploring opinion amongst the further education staff
and managers delivering the existing childcare qualifications. The study is exploratory in nature,
using a mixture of quantitative and qualitative data to highlight what the changes will mean, how they
will affect those involved and why the changes have happened.
Name
Email
Title
11.40 – 12.05 Parallel sessions 3
Suad Al Fori
widdyff@yahoo.com
A dot in a whole circle!
The study looks at how parental partnership is perceived and promoted by the Ministry of Education
(MOE) in Oman to help pupils, specifically those with Specific Learning Difficulties. It employs
qualitative research methods to investigate policies, structures and practices of parental partnership in
Oman. To achieve the research aims and answer the research questions the research is carried out in
multi-levels with different groups being targeted and various methods being used to collect data.
Preliminary results show that there are some good promising practices and efforts to promote parental
partnership in Oman; and there is still a lot to be done. A great deal of work on parental partnership
seem to be based on individual efforts of some personnel in schools, the regional directorate and the
Ministry, and thus it lacks consistency, because, when it comes to parental partnership, there seems to
be little dialogue between them. The professionalism model of partnership, emphasizing the
dominance of the teacher, seems to be prevalent, which could have resulted in the passive role of
many parents‘ in their children‘s learning. The preliminary results are discussed in terms of policies,
funding and accountability and private tuition with respect to parental involvement.
Name
Email
Title
12.10 – 12.35 Parallel sessions 1
Paul Colewood
ed08pcc@leeds.ac.uk
Methodological considerations in interviewing children of primary school age
In recent years there have been significant developments in the methodological techniques used for
consulting with children in social science research, with a wide range of studies in a variety of fields
concerned with listening to the voices of children. This can be seen to be part of a broader change in
conception which, instead of regarding children as peripheral figures to be ―seen and not heard‖,
attaches central importance to the perspectives, actions and attitudes of children.
In this presentation I shall focus on the methodological issues which require special attention when
interviewing children of primary school age. This will include a consideration of the extent to which
research with children is potentially different to research with adults, together with an overview of
some of the key aspects which need to be addressed when interviewing children of this age. As well
as considering relevant literature and research, the presentation will draw on the findings of my own
pilot study.
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